Don't faint. I know, right?! Two blog posts in seven days... Can you believe it?! Today I'm sharing my painting secrets for making a brand new replica of a French draper's table look hundreds of years old. First, let me tell you about the table.
I fell in love with the idea of repurposing a table as a master bathroom vanity when I saw the gorgeous table that Brooke Giannetti used in her bathroom at Patina Farm. I looked at real vintage French draper's tables online but the $2,500 to $4,000 price tag was well beyond my budget and even if I could have afforded one, I'm not sure that I could have actually cut holes in a French antique. Instead, I had my wonderful Amish cabinet maker, Merle, make a replica of one that I found online and I painted and finished it myself.
In my ongoing mission to share with you the different products that I use to achieve the various finishes that I create on furniture, today, I'm using General Finishes and DIY Brand products. This is not a sponsored post. I'm simply sharing the products that I used.
The table is made of paint grade poplar which I painted using a good quality 2 1/2 inch nylon brush applying two coats of
General Finishes Milk Paint in Seagull Gray. After the paint had dried for 24 hours, (I did
not sand because I wanted the brush strokes to show) I simply wiped on a coat of DIY brand
Dark & Decrepit Liquid Patina using a small piece of terry cloth towel.
The liquid patina settled into all of the brush strokes and the crevices in the legs and top of the table. I let the liquid patina dry and then wet sanded using a fine grade sanding sponge and water sanding in the direction of the grain of the wood. The sanding softened the patina and allowed more of the original gray color to show through.
I allowed the piece to dry for 24 hours and then sealed it with General Finished High Performance Water Based Top Coat in Flat. I chose this top coat because it is more durable than wax and we're using this piece in the master bath where there will likely be water dripped on it.
For hardware, I chose rusty steel bin pulls on the "drawer fronts". Only the drawer in the middle is actually functional but I wanted it to look like I had actually converted a table into the vanity.
For now (since we haven't built the step back that will act as our linen closet in this room) we're using wicker baskets to store our towels and bathroom linens. I chose Kohler vessel sinks and unlacquered brass faucets for the master bathroom vanity but I'll admit that I did disconnect the stoppers on the drains since there are no "overflow" holes in the sinks and I had nightmares about accidentally leaving the water on long enough to have it end up all over the bathroom floor.
Up next in this room: my friend Chris and I are building the extra deep, mirrored medicine cabinets that go in the holes above the sinks. After that, trim and beams and installing the lighting. There is still a lot to be done but now we can brush our teeth in the bathroom instead of the laundry room!
I love the way that the soft gray color of the vanity works with the limestone floor. The DIY painted finish on my reproduction French draper's table master bath vanity looks like a French antique....at about a third of the cost of a real one!
Thanks for reading!
